New Urban Agenda

On World Habitat Day 2016, the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments celebrates the landmark inclusion of a reference to the Right to the City in the New Urban Agenda and calls on the international community to#Listen2Cities at the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments and create a renewed global governance partnership to achieve sustainable development.

The final draft of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at the Habitat III Conference in October recognizes the local government constituency and includes many of our main recommendations.

The informal negotiations in New York from 7-9 September mark the beginning of the countdown to the adoption of the New Urban Agenda at Habitat III. Hundreds of urban experts, members of civil society, and citizens have joined the #Listen2Cities campaign launched by global networks of local and regional governments in May.

From 10-20 July, local and regional governments attended the High Level Political Forum in New York to share our perspectives on the implementation of the SDGs with the international community and to launch the Roadmap for localizing the SDGs.

From 10-20 July, local and regional governments will be in New York to share their perspectives on the implementation of the SDGs with the international community and to launch the Roadmap for localizing the SDGs.

​The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments has partnered with UNDP and UN-Habitat to draw up a roadmap to support local and regional governments in the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs.At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.All of the SDGs have targets directly related to the responsibilitiesof local and regional governments. Their achievement will depend on action in our cities and territories. That's why the Global Taskforce, UNDP and UN-Habitat have put together a roadmap for localizing the SDGs to support local and regional governments."Localization" refers both to how local and regional governments can support the achievement of the SDGs through action from the bottom up and to how the SDGs can provide a framework for local development policy.The roadmap covers a number of important areas of action for local and regional governments in relation to the SDGs, including public awareness-raising, advocacy towards national governments, and implementation and monitoring.The roadmap is not a prescriptive ‘how to’ guide; rather, it covers a range of strategies that can be adapted to the specific contexts and needs of different cities and regions.More information:Roadmap for Localizing the SDGs: implementation and monitoring at subnational levelThe SDGs: What Local Governments Need to KnowConsultation on Localizing the Post-2015 Development Agenda